Your browser doesn't seem to support JavaScript, or it is turned off.
conference

khatt kufi & kaffiya

The Khatt Foundation Symposium on Arabic Visual Culture

Khatt and Mediamatic will host a full day of lectures, presentations and celebration of new Arabic cultural expression, at the theater van 't woord in the central public library of Amsterdam.

Registration is required, please click here to register.

The fee for the symposium includes lunch and a copy of "Typographical Matchmaking", the beautiful new book on Arabic typography. It is €45 (€25 for students). Payment will be in cash at the symposium registration desk. You need to bring your confirmation email. For student, make sure to come with your student ID.

  • Symposium Logo

    Symposium Logo

The day events will include:
—the one-day symposium
—the launch of 5 new Arabic typefaces
the Typographic Matchmaking book
—this international online community, the Khatt Network for Arabic Typography
the El HEMA Exhibition
—workshops
—the El HEMA design competition

The aim of this symposium is to discuss the positive role of design and typography in Arabic youth culture, how it can generate positive perceptions and productive collaborations that bridge the gap between Eastern and Western cultures.

Speakers

A selection of scholars and designers from the Middle East, the US and Europe will discuss the impact of historical and contemporary visual culture on Arabic identity. New forms of visual expression, such as new Arabic typefaces, and other cross-cultural design experiments will be the focus of the symposium. The symposium will introduce the Khatt Foundations’ collaborative pilot design project Typographic Matchmaking. Among other topics the symposium will cover topics that vary from history of European printing of Arabic books, to expressive calligraphy, to the relation of typography and dance, to the relation between culture and technological advancement in the printing arts, to political activism through visual communication in the Middle East, to case studies of inter-cultural design project between Dutch designer and Arab institutions (or designers), and statistical information about the visual arts, design, new media and typographic expression in the Arab world.
Click here for detailed program

Registration & Fees

The cost of the symposium is 45 Euro (20 Euro for students with valid ID). Registration includes a free copy of the book Typographic Matchmaking and bonus CD (which has a retail price of 30 Euro), a lunch, and a reception.
Payment at the door, but registration is required, please click here to register.

El HEMA Exhibition

The symposium will be followed by an exhibition entitled El-HEMA which will take place in Mediamatic’s gallery space (on the ground floor of the PostCS building). The exhibition will open on the night of the 24th of August and will go on until the 3rd of November.

Acknowledgments

The symposium and related events, have been generously supported by the Fonds BKVB, the Khatt Foundation, Stichting Mediamatic, the Openbare Bibliotheek van Amsterdam, and BIS Publishers

    • Symposium Program

      Khatt Kufi Kaffiya | Symposium on Arabic Visual Culture

      • Syrian Lingerie

        Syrian Lingerie - 

        Image from the publication “The secret Life of Syrian lingerie: Intimacy and Design”. This book will be published by the book will be published by Chronicle Books in autumn 2008. Photo by Omar al-Moutem.

      We'll have the whole day to ourselves in the theatre of the brand new public library of Amsterdam (OBA)

      Admission and registration is from 9 on and the programme starts at 10:00 sharp.

      We'll have lunch at the 8th floor restaurant with an amazing view over Amsterdam.

      At 17:00 we'll wrap up and move to the next-door PostCS building where we'll celebrate the opening of El HEMA at Mediamatic!

    • event: khatt kufi & kaffiya

      Cultural Survival Kits and Other Practical Ideas

      24 Aug 07 10:10 Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFares - Cultural survival kits… it would be real nice if we had ready-made ones to give out at the door with simple instruction manuals....
    • event: khatt kufi & kaffiya

      Google in Arabia: Introducing the Khatt Network for Arabic typography

      24 Aug 07 10:30 Willem Velthoven - Movable type was the the new media of the 15th century. In Europe many rulers felt threatened by it, and they were right. They did...
    • event: khatt kufi & kaffiya

      Visiting Shiba

      the National Museum of Yemen

      24 Aug 07 10:50 Jelle van der Toorn Vrijthoff - The National Museum of Yemen in the capital city of Sana’a was neglected when I arrived in 1998. The buildings needed repairs all...
    • event: khatt kufi & kaffiya

      2
      Dangerous Lingerie and Other Mid East Street Stories that Spook the West

      22 Aug 07 11:20 Malu Halasa - The Arab street – its vibrancy, innovativeness, traditions of design and contemporary expression – has been obscured by geopolitical...
    • event: khatt kufi & kaffiya

      The Clash of Motion Picture

      a Concise Look Back

      24 Aug 07 11:40 Khaled Ramadan - Talk and short video screening by Khaled D. Ramadan. Planet of the Arabs by video maker Jacki Salloum.
    • event: khatt kufi & kaffiya

      1
      On Activism, Design and Politics in the Arab World

      the Case of Visual Culture in Beirut

      24 Aug 07 12:00 Zeina Maasri - Politics, in the form of contemporary cultural resistance projects and in the history of Arab political posters, will be the subject of...
    • event: khatt kufi & kaffiya

      Marhaba

      In Search for a Hybrid Visual Language

      24 Aug 07 13:10 Jacques Koeweiden - The Dutch government stimulates contact between groups of different backgrounds by establishing a House for Cultural Dialogue in the...
    • event: khatt kufi & kaffiya

      Unfamiliar Territories, Arabic Type and Modern Dance

      24 Aug 07 13:30 Peter Bilak - Peter Bilak will speak about methodologies of approaching unfamiliar areas of work.
    • event: khatt kufi & kaffiya

      From Amulet to Art Nouveau

      a Thousand Years of Arab-European Exchange in Printing and Book Design

      24 Aug 07 13:50 Dr Geoffrey Roper - The history of printing in the Arab world and Europe is the story of a 500-year exchange of technology, imagery and design. The Arabs...
    • event: khatt kufi & kaffiya

      Interface, Expressive Western and Arabic Calligraphy in Dialogue

      24 Aug 07 14:20 Brody Neuenschwander - For nearly twenty years, Brody Neuenschwander has worked with the British film maker Peter Greenaway to produce calligraphy for films,...
    • event: khatt kufi & kaffiya

      The Enchanted Canary*

      Contemporary Arabic Children's Books

      24 Aug 07 14:40 Nadine Touma - 'If I do not mistake, you come from far. May I ask where you are going?' 'I will tell you,' answered Désiré, 'though most likely you...
    • event: khatt kufi & kaffiya

      Writing From The Margins

      Technological Narratives of Arabic Typography

      24 Aug 07 15:00 J.R. Osborn - Narratives of Arabic typography shift between technological exclusion, historical resistance, and cultural rediscovery. From...
    • event: khatt kufi & kaffiya

      The Current Market for Arabic Fonts

      Recent Developments and Consumer Needs

      24 Aug 07 15:20 Nadine Chahine - The Arabic type market has changed dramatically in the last few years, and this has been mainly inspired by recent technology...
    • event: khatt kufi & kaffiya

      The Typographic Landscapes of the Arab World

      Research on Aesthetic Trends and Legibility

      24 Aug 07 15:40 Tarek Atrissi - Tarek Atrissi’s will present a research on aesthetic trends and design conventions in the Arab world, through the analysis of selected...
    • event: khatt kufi & kaffiya

      The Typographic Matchmaking Project: Developing Dual-Script Fonts

      24 Aug 07 16:10 Willem Velthoven - Willem Velthoven interviewing the Typographic Matchmaking Type Designers: Nadine Chahine, Gerard Unger, Tarek Atrissi, Peter Bilak,...
    • Book: 

      1Typographic Matchmaking

      This book is now available for ordering online from Nijhof & Lee and BIS Publishers.

      Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFares - As the world moves forward towards a more international (design) society, the need for fonts that can support multi-scripts becomes ...
    • event: Amsterdam, Stichting Mediamatic

      El HEMA Project

      El HEMA is a non-commercial cultural project by the Mediamatic Foundation in Amsterdam.

      24 Aug 07 17:00 > 6 Jan 08 What would an Arabic HEMA look like? Halal sausage? Arabic chocolate letters? Affordable high quality headscarves? 3 Palestinian scarfs...
    • conference program: 

      Khatt Kufi Kaffiya, the printable symposium program

      Lectures are described in detail with timings and links to the speakers' biographies.

      The symposium program has been evolving and includes topics of every aspect of contemporary Arabic visual culture and identity, going ...